Books, Books, Books!

Before I get into this post, I want to let you all know that there is now an Adventure SLP Facebook page! Like the page on Facebook to keep up to date with the lastest blog post and products in my store! Ok, now for the post! 

This post is all about using books in speech therapy! Books can be used to target a variety of goals, get children interested in reading, and expose them to a variety of books! Many children struggle with reading and don't get a lot of exposure at home or in their early years. The more exposure, the better! So why not include books into your therapy sessions? If your wondering how, here are some tips! 

1. BOOK SELECTION: Choosing the right book may seem difficult. It depends on your students level. For students who are working on simply attending to a story, book orientation, turning pages properly, and pointing out basic objects, I suggest using the Spot books. They are short, simple, and lifting the flap can be interactive and fun! For students who are working on a variety of goals, more complex books can be used. I try to look for books that have a beginning, middle, and end. A moral or lesson to the story is also good. 

       Look at the vocabulary of the story. You may want the book to have a few new words but it shouldn't be so challenging that the student misses the content. I also look at length. Speech therapy sessions are usually short, so you want to try and avoid longer books. I typically use books to address goals, therefore, you want time to actually address those goals within the session! 

2. GOAL SELECTION: ALWAYS pre-read the book! When I look at books, the wheels are turning as to which goals can be addressed. Often multiple goals can be addressed through one book. For this reason, I have found it helpful to use books as units. This is something that was introduced to me in grad school. You can spend two-three sessions working on one book to really drive home the skills you are working on! Here are some ideas I usually think of when looking at books: 

Articulation: If your student can read, look at the difficulty level and the number of targets. If not. Look at the pictures! You can encourage students to tell their own story by looking at the pictures. This is a great activity for carry-over! You can also play "I Spy" with the pictures (perfect for students working on /s/!). For students at the word level, pull out vocab from the book and work on those words. 

Language: there is so much for language! I will by no means cover it all! First and foremost, comprehension. You can ask students comprehension questions as you go and/or after the story. You can also ask students to make predictions while reading. Retelling the story is a great skill as well. Visuals aids are often helpful when beginning to learn this skill. Another skill to target is sequencing events from the story. Having picture cards that correlate to the book is an easy way to address this. You can use books to target answering yes/no and wh- questions. You can use manipulatives related to the story to target following directions. You can target pronouns and correct grammar with the sentences from the story. You can use vocabulary from the story to teach new words. Talk about describing items, synonyms, antonyms, and multiple meaning words. 

Pre-literacy skills: correct book orientation. Identifying the title and author on the cover. You can talk about the title page and where the sentences are in the story. The correct way to turn pages (I.e. Not flipping all over the place). Reading the words from left to right. Rhyming skills. You can use pause prompts to encourage students to fill in the blanks. For repetitive books, have the student read the same word on each page (I.e car or ball). Use pause prompts to help them know when to say the word. 

Social skills: Books are a great way to address social skills. You can identify emotions within the book. Talk about how characters feel and why. Propose alternative events and talk about how the characters would feel then. You can also have the students relate the characters experiences to their own lives and times when they felt that way. Another target is brainstorming how to solve certain social situations  related to the story. 

3. READING THE STORY: don't just read it! Get into it...the more fun you have the more the kids will enjoy it. Also find other ways to tell the story. Look for YouTube videos of animations people have made or the authors reading the story. If your really ambitious, you can use puppets to retell the story, 

4. INCORPORATE THE STORY IN OTHER ACTIVITIES: You can include crafts and games related to the book to make it fun! Remaking the book so that your students can be "in" it can also be fun! You can also use songs. Kids love learning new songs and you can often find a few just by doing a quick Google search! Print the songs in rebus format to help the kids "read" the lyrics. Hand motions are also a fun way to make the words stick! 

5. TAKE HOME: Provide the students with something to take home; students often love bringing things home to show their parents and it can also help with carryover! It may be the craft you made, a copy of the song, or some of the students work they did that address their targets. Depending on the situation, it may be helpful to suggest additional activities for parents to do at home, like going to the library and checking out that book, or making something from the story (I.e a recipe or craft). 

So there you have it! Just some ideas to get you going! Books can provide inspiration for hours of therapy! Get creative and use themes and activities from books and go from there! It is also helpful to target one or two books students are reading within their regular classroom...again, carryover!

If your looking for some ideas for fall-themed books here are some of my favorites: When The Leaf Blew In, If You Give A Moose A Muffin, Bear Gives Thanks (or any of the Bear books!), The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid Of Anything, Halloween Night, I Need My Monster, and There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bat/Pie. 

One place to find great book companions is on Teachers Pay Teachers. Many of the SLP sellers have book companion packs that address a variety of speech and language goals! There are so many out there! Try searching the title of the book you want to use! 

This is by no mean an exhaustive list! I'd love to hear how you incorporate books in your speech rooms! 

Adventure Awaits! 

It's Officially Fall!

It's here! Fall has officially arrived! I'm pretty excited if you couldn't tell! This is one of my favorite times of the year. I love the crisp air, the changing leaves, everything pumpkin, and the promise that winter is coming! 

This will be the first time I have not been in the northeast for Fall and I'm a little sad to miss the beautiful foliage. They say the northeast, especially New England, is the best place for leaf peeping, and while I agree, I don't really have anything to compare it to! Although it doesn't quite feel like Fall yet here in Colorado, we have gotten some hints and it is definitely on its way. While it isn't New England, I have heard Fall is beautiful here as well, especially up in the mountains. While out and about this weekend, I have already begun to see leaves change! 

So in honor of Fall officially starting, I have added some fun Fall-themed items to my TpT Store! They are both open-ended board games, mostly for the pre-k through elementary age group. One is a Falling Leaves freebie game and the other is a bundle of games to carry you all the way through Thanksgiving! Your speech room or classroom can never have enough games! Here is a preview: 

In the bundle, you will find the following game themes: Falling Leaves, Apple Picking, Pumpkin Patch, Candy Corn, Bats in a Graveyard, Trick-or-Treating, Pilgrims on the Mayflower, and a Thanksgiving Feast. You can find it here! 

So get outside, enjoy the apple picking, pumpkin spice lattes, and the beautiful autumn leaves! And get ready because the snow will be here before you know it and it will be time to hit the slopes! 

Adventure Awaits! 

6 Things

Things have been quiet on the blog but that is because work had been crazy! Training is over and I am officially seeing clients all on my... full-time! It is an amazing feeling to be out on your own but also scary! There is a lot I have learned in the two weeks of flying solo and I thought I would share some of them with all of you!

Here it goes...

1. It's OK to not know! Many times a day a client or family member will ask me a question that I don't know the answer to... be cool! Respond with, "Ya know, I'm not sure but I will look into that for you" or "I'm still thinking of how to best address that". No one has the answers to everything. Just make sure if you tell someone you will look into it, that you actually look into it! 

2. You will make mistakes. I have already made a few and it's only been a couple weeks. Just remember, you learn from your mistakes! Figure out what went wrong and how you can avoid making the same mistake again. 

3. "I don't know what I'm doing". In grad school, I often had this feeling but always had a supervisor close by to fall back on! What I have learned so far is that feeling hasn't gone away, and I'm not expecting it to any time soon! Embrace it! Trust your gut and show people you are confident in what you are doing (even if you aren't!). 

4. Stay organized! I know I just did a whole post on this, but it really does make your life easier! I keep all my important dates and client information in one place. At the beginning of each week, I get all the client's folders for the week organized by day and make sure I have enough notes printed out to do all my paperwork. This doesn't take very long and it is tremendously helpful! 

5. Don't be afraid to ask questions! When you aren't sure or don't know something, ask! You may feel like you are annoying those around you, but it's better to ask for clarification than continue doing the wrong thing! Remember, everyone was new once and "an expert at anything was once a beginner" (Helen Hayes). 

6. Don't take it personally! There may be clients that you run into that are difficult to work with, don't trust you as a therapist, are not confident because you are new, or whatever. Don't take it as a personal insult. There will always be clients that are challenging in many different ways. It is not you! Let it roll off your back and move on. Dwelling on it will only stress you out more! Just know, it happens to everyone! 

So that is what I have learned in my two weeks of doing solo therapy as a CF-SLP. I know there are many lessons to learn throughout my CF and the rest of my career as an SLP. School may be out but we never stop learning! I hope you at least take some comfort that you are not alone in this stressful and exciting time as a clinical fellow! 

Adventure Awaits!

Get Organized!

Whew! I have started my CF and it is going great! I am learning SO much! There is so much information coming in, I have to find a way to organize it all!

Firstly, I recommend a planner to organize your life. You can get generic planners from many office supply stores and rummaging through the back to school sections. There are also websites online where you can get more personalized (and more expensive) planners to fit your life. One such company is the Erin Condren Life Planner. Make sure to write down all your important meetings and dates.

As a CF, it is important to keep track of all your therapy hours, evaluations, and indirect and direct supervisory meetings. To find out all the information you need for your CF, visit ASHA's website here.  The speech department at your university will have likely provided you all the information for licensure in that state, but if you're like me, you'll need information for other states. For ASHA's licensure requirements by state, click here.

So once you've got your paperwork, meetings, and dates organized, you will want to organize everything you'll need for therapy! This includes client/student information, reports and/or plans, and your materials. To get you started, I have a great FREE product on Teachers Pay Teachers to help you organize important client/student information without having to dig through their file each time. You can find it HERE. I find it helpful to have all my client's goals in one place without having to find the most current plan in their file each time! As a CF, you may not have a bank of therapy materials and your new job may not have provided you with any or with very few. If that's the case, here are some tips for getting cheap therapy materials. The Dollar Store and the $1 section of Target can be your best friend! From therapy room decorations, to stickers, to sensory toys, you can find a lot! If you are looking for games to use during therapy, Goodwill is a GREAT place to look. I have found memory games, shape games, board games, and so much more in their toy section. You would be surprised how little "used" some of these items can be! It's also a great place to find children's books!  Magazines can also be great for getting pictures for various articulation or language activities! Cheap crafts are always fun to do in therapy too and kids usually love it! Lastly, Teachers Pay Teachers is a great website to find cheap (and free!) therapy materials that you can print off. These products usually require some printing and laminating but you won't be spending tons of money on one therapy activity! And your in luck...there is a MAJOR Back to School Sale happening soon over on Teachers Pay Teachers! Up to 28% off when you use the code BTS13. There was never a better time to get great therapy materials made by other SLP's. The Queen's Speech has a great list of all the SLP bloggers who are participating, CLICK HERE to check it out!

As a CF, we are already stressed out about learning the ropes, being on our own for the first time, making sure we are compliant with all regulations, working with parents and caregivers...and the list goes on! You don't want to be stressing about a piece of paper you can't find on top of that!

Don't forget to reach out to your colleagues and CF mentor during this time. They are also a wealth of knowledge. I have only just started and have learned so much just from them! Ask questions, ask for explanations, ask for clarification, ask for opinions...that is what they are there for!

And don't forget to have some fun! You will be so much less stressed if you take some time for yourself and forget about work (if only for a little while!).

Adventure Awaits! 

                                

So it begins!

It's time! I am about to take that giant leap from an SLP graduate student to a full blown clinical fellow in speech-language pathology! Gone are the days of clinical supervisor's holding my hand and going over every lesson plan and activity. The days of dreaming of independence are over, and it's a little terrifying! Granted as a CF, we still have support from our mentors and fellow CF's, not to mention the abundance of SLP bloggers online offering up great therapy ideas and advice! However, the learning curve is still STEEP and I have a feeling that the CF year will be just as (if not more) challenging as graduate school! 

As I am about to start my career, I can't help but look back at how I got here. Those anxious days of waiting to find out if I got into graduate school, sitting in on those first few classes, working with clients for the first time....it has all been leading up to this. But once graduate school is over and you finally have that degree in your hands, that's when the real work begins! You start stalking combing through job posting sites and applying like a mad-man. You perfect your resume, write individual cover letters, and try to make yourself stand out among all the other applicants. I think that is the worst part! Applying to countless jobs thinking that will be the one, only to never hear from them! If you are reading this and still in graduate school, this probably doesn't sound very encouraging! Stick with it, keep applying and don't be afraid to branch out. You may have it set in your mind which population you want to work with or which setting you want to work in, but explore other options. You never know what you will find! If your anything like me, you may find yourself going in a very different direction! 

Although nervous about finally becoming an SLP, I am also very excited! All those years of late night studying and writing papers has come to an end and it's time to put those skills to the test! If you are still uneasy about starting your CF and need some more encouragement from some seasoned SLP's, I encourage you to check out a post over at Sublime Speech on Preparing for Your CF Year! 

In honor of this big step I am having my first ever giveaway! I am giving away the newest product on my Teachers Pay Teachers store: Out of This World Articulation Challenger Sentences! This is a fun alien-themed activity that includes 32 tongue-twisting and silly sentences for /s/, /ch/, and /l/. It also includes a fun game that can be used with any activity! Enter in the Rafflecopter below! 

                                       

So...here's to taking that giant leap into the great unknown and hoping I grow wings on the way down! To anyone else starting their CF soon, we have been preparing for this for at least 2 years now! You may be new...but you're not alone! 

Adventure Awaits! 


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Hello Colorado!

Made it! After a long 3 day drive, I made it to Colorado! The drive was very long and we drove about 700 miles per day! It was nice to see so much of the country. Pennsylvania had beautiful mountain highways but from Chicago to Denver it was mostly farms and windmills! It was cool to see so many wind farms throughout Iowa and Nebraska. But, needless to say, I was happy to have finally reached Denver for more than one reason! 

It was nice having my mom drive out to Colorado with me and help me get settled into my new apartment. In between prepping for work and getting settled, I have had some time to explore a little bit.  The first adventure was a trip up the Mount Evans Scenic Byway drive. This is a road that takes you up 14,130 ft. The roads are narrow and winding with absolutely NO guardrails. It is a little nerve-racking to say the least but absolutely worth it! The views from the top are incredible, even on a cloudy day like we had! Once you get to the top, you have the option of climbing up another 100 feet or so to get to the  "true top" (14,264 ft). While driving up, my head began to hurt and continued at the top. Luckily, that was the only issue I had with the altitude. I also experienced some slight shortness of breath with walking to the top. Both of these symptoms disappeared while we were descending. 

The next adventure took me quite further into the Rockies. One of my graduate school clinical supervisors had rented a cabin with her husband for a couple weeks and invited my friends and me out. Their cabin overlooked the two tallest peaks in Colorado, one of them being Mount Elbert. Although it rained a majority of our stay there, the views were incredible and it was great visiting with them! We did have some altitude issues while we were there, nothing major though, just some headaches, shortness of breath, and fatigue. We were able to explore the town of Leadville, at 10,000+ feet. 

While driving out to Leadville, we passed many signs for ski mountains including Breckinridge, Aspen, Vail, and Copper Mountain to name a few! This is getting me very excited for snowboard season! I'm thinking the next adventure will be hiking and exploring Red Rocks, the amphitheater right outside Denver! Any other suggestions?

Here is a collage of pictures of my adventures so far! I made this using Pic Stitch. 

I will be starting my Clinical Fellowship year very soon, so stay tuned for posts about that! To make sure you don't miss a post, enter your email in the "Follow By Email" tab at the top right of this page!

Adventure Awaits! 

Taylor

See Ya Later, Maine!

It's finally here! The car is packed and I'm headed west! These last two weeks have been jam packed with cleaning, organizing, packing, and everything else that comes with moving. I have also spent time with friends and family and soaking up everything I love about Maine. I even took a trip up to "the county" (for all you non-Mainers, that would be northern Maine). I got to see family I haven't seen in about 10 years! There are definitely mixed emotions about a leap this big: excitement, nervousness, and a little fear. But to quote a favorite song of mine: "Sometimes the only way is jumping, I hope your not afraid of heights!" However, I can't move across the country without visiting my favorite spots one last time. Here's a picture I've compiled...if your ever in Portland, I highly recommend these places! 

This adventure will begin with a 3 day car trip (as long as nothing goes wrong!) out to Denver. With this being the FOURTH move in two months (me, then my brother, then my parents, and now me again!), we have had enough of loading and unloading U-Haul trucks or hooking trailers up to the car! Therefore, whatever fits in the Jeep goes and whatever doesn't, stays behind! I will have some time to settle into the new place, buy some essential pieces of furniture (e.g. bed), and hopefully squeeze in an adventure or two before starting work! I am beyond excited to start exploring Colorado! 

AND for all you Teachers Pay Teachers members out there, I am going to set one of my PAID items to FREE for a very limited time. In honor of the beginning of this adventure, you can download my "Pirate Language Pack" for FREE from my store (what else spells adventure better than a little pirate treasure hunt!). This will only be free from the time I set out on the road until I make the first pit-stop. If enough people leave feedback, I may keep it free for a little longer! Just click the link above to download!

So, here it is...everything I'm taking out to Colorado, crammed into that! I am so excited to start this adventure! Here I go....Colorado or Bust!

Stay tuned because.... Adventure Awaits! 

Taylor